Through-put and turnaround of patients is a key economic metric of the productivity of X-ray imaging devices. X-ray imaging devices have a high fixed cost that the owners and operators of the X-ray imaging devices seek to either reduce and/or the owners and operators seek to derive the greatest amount of productivity from the devices, in order to obtain the greatest return-on-investment from the X-ray imaging device.
One way to derive the greatest amount of productivity from the X-ray imaging device is to increase the number of subjects or patients that are imaged in an amount of time. However, the amount of time needed to image a subject is limited to some extent by the amount of time that is required in between imaging sessions to cool the X-ray tube that is in the X-ray imaging device.
An X-ray tube typically converts more than 99% of all the energy supplied to the X-ray tube into heat as an unwanted by-product of producing the desired X-rays. The effective management of X-ray tube heat is a key element in the design of X-ray tube housings.
Improving the transfer of heat energy away from the X-ray tube facilitates increased use of the system and is more efficient for the user since less time is spent waiting for the X-ray tube to cool.
Conventional liquid cooled X-ray tube designs include a pump and a heat exchanger mounted on the X-ray tube. The pump circulates oil from inside the X-ray tube housing through a heat exchanger that cools the oil by either forced air convection or by an external liquid cooler.
Other conventional solutions have incorporated secondary external or internal plumbing lines into the X-ray tube housing, through which a coolant is circulated. The cooling lines typically route the coolant to a radiator near the X-ray tube and a fan cools the plumbing lines in or on the X-ray tube housing.
Mobile X-ray equipment needs to minimize weight and power requirements. Existing cooling solutions have resulted in increased weight and power requirements at the X-ray tube. Any increased weight at the X-ray tube is particularly undesirable due to the counter balancing required for the gantry, and the use of a fan restricts use of the system in some surgical environments.
Conventional X-ray tube housings require a complex design with many parts to integrate the secondary plumbing and customized cooling solutions within the X-ray tube housing which result in high manufacturing and assembly costs.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated, there is a need in the art for an X-ray tube cooling system that has the weight at the X-ray head. There is also a need to reduce the use of fans at the X-ray tube; to reduce the power requirements at the X-ray tube; and to improve the heat transfer from the X-ray tube housing.